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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-02 Daily Xml
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Child Protection

The Hon. L.A. CURRAN (15:39): I rise today to talk about our child protection system. The truth is that we have seen much talk but little action from this government. For a government that was only elected seven months ago, they have established a lot of inquiries in the child protection space. Whilst we always welcome the opportunity to reflect on the status quo to ensure that the system is working adequately, these reviews have stemmed out of the most tragic of circumstances, circumstances that no person should ever have to endure.

But while we wait for the many reviews in this space since the government's election, our vulnerable children are stuck with the status quo. They are the people who suffer while we await the bureaucracy of these reviews. I will add that once these reviews are released there will be no immediate change. They are just that: a review, some suggestions for the minister and the department to consider or to disregard.

After the reports are delivered, then what? What we do not want to see is recommendations ignored, as has previously been criticised by some, following previous recommendations from coroners, the Ombudsman and the Royal Commissioner, Margaret Nyland.

In April of this year, the minister said the government would expeditiously appoint an independent reviewer to conduct a review of the coronial and other recommendations relating to child protection in South Australia. She anticipated that the process of reviewing and then receiving any report and beginning a plan for any implementation of change would happen this year. In June of this year, the minister, in a ministerial statement, notified the house of the appointment of Kate Alexander as the external reviewer to undertake the review, with the expected date of completion to be October 2022.

Well, we are now in November, and we are now only seven sitting days away from the end of the year, if you do not include the optional sitting week. This leaves little to no time for the report to be received and for any plan to be implemented and any changes to be put in place.

Every day we wait for these reviews is another day that children in the child protection system are at risk of facing the same preventable tragedy that we have seen with Chloe Valentine, Korey Lee Mitchell, Amber Rigney, Charlie, Makai and Jimmy. The list goes on. It saddens me how long this list is. When will the government say, 'We have sought enough reviews and it is time for some change'?

For every day we sit and wait for recommendations to come out of these tragic events, we risk another child facing the same fate, a fate was that was very sadly preventable. Our children are our most vulnerable in our community; they need our protection. They rely on the government to be able to make the tough calls and to make sure our vulnerable children are of paramount consideration.

A couple of months ago, the opposition called on Premier Malinauskas to dedicate a standalone child protection minister to protect vulnerable South Australian children with the sole priority of overseeing the Department for Child Protection, but this has not happened. As current Minister for Child Protection, the Hon. Katrine Hildyard grapples with two additional portfolios, including being the Minister for Sport and Recreation, in which she is busy delivering election commitments for Labor members—payments for sporting club and local infrastructure grants.

Focus is being taken away from child protection and away from our state's most vulnerable. We need a dedicated child protection minister right now, someone whose sole focus is the increased safety of vulnerable children to ensure that we do not see a repeat of recent tragedies. At risk of sounding like it is groundhog day, I stand here today before you to agitate for this yet again. It is time we see some action.

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